Boston officer fired for e-mail wants 'fair hearing'

Lawyer says directive to fire Barrett came from Obama, Menino

BOSTON — A Boston police officer who was fired on Friday for sending a racially offensive e-mail says that he was railroaded out of the department without due process. In an interview with NewsCenter 5’s Cheryl Fiandaca, Justin Barrett said that his character was assailed before he was given a chance to defend himself at a fair hearing.

"My name was smeared to the public from the very beginning,” said Barrett. “I didn't get due process from the beginning. I was judged right from the beginning as someone who doesn't belong in society and I'm a cancer."

Barrett was suspended for violating department rules this summer after he sent the e-mail to several people, including the Boston Globe and other police officers. In the message, Barrett referred to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates as a “banana-eating jungle monkey.” Gates, a black Harvard scholar, was arrested at his home in July 2009 on a disorderly conduct charge after he tried to budge open the door of his Cambridge home.

"If they look up my record on the city of Boston, everything I've done I've done fairly. All the arrests I've made, the citations. Everything's been done fairly and professionally," said Barrett. "I just wanted a fair hearing. At the end of the day, whoever makes the decisions after a fair hearing is what the decision is. I just wanted a fair hearing.”